By Gary Krakow
Columnist
MSNBC
Updated: 7:56 a.m. ET July 29, 2004

You see them everywhere. Apple's iPod is now synonymous in people's
minds with portable music. Twenty years ago, it was the Walkman that
was state-of-the-art for portability. Twenty years before that it was a
transistor AM radio. The other thing they have in common? All three
were inferior to the recorded music standards of the time.

But these days, you don't have to stand for that.

Former battery problems aside, the iPod is a magnificent device which
has the capability of providing true hi-fi audio. Unfortunately, that¹s
not the way it and all the wannabe clones are being marketed.

Instead of telling you how great your music can sound, Apple and other
MP3 mass-storage device manufacturers boast how many compressed music
files you can fit on their devices. Apple, for example, boasts ³you
easily slip up to 10,000 songs into your pocket.²

What you have to strain to see in the small type at the bottom of the
page is that to squeeze 10,000 songs onto your iPod they have to be
compressed into Apple¹s AAC format at 128Kpbs. Apple figures each of
these files is approximately 4MB.

That¹s great if you¹re into archiving the Library of Congress¹
collection into your hip pocket. If you want to actually preserve your
music, you can do a lot better.

Ideally, what you should be doing is listening to songs encoded in
Apple¹s AIFF format. AIFF files and the similar WAV files in the
Windows realm are not compressed at all. Each file is approximately 30
to 40 MB each, or about 10 times the size of files compressed into the
AAC, MP3, RA or WMA formats.

When music is compressed and then uncompressed, there are losses: little
things like spatial qualities of where each sound is and tonal
discrepancies. Listen for cymbals, horns, voices and even drums and
bass sounds; the more the music is compressed the more it strays from
sounding real. Higher compression rates sound better (320K sounds a lot
better than 128K) but once you listen to how clear, real and lifelike
non-compressed music sounds, you¹ll never go back.

Comparing uncompressed and compressed music is like comparing a slice of
the best bakery-made chocolate cake you¹ve ever eaten to a Devil Dog or
a Ring Ding.

To my ears, compressed music files are the equivalent of junk food to
the music industry. The difference is like comparing a slice of the best
bakery-made chocolate cake you¹ve ever eaten to a Devil Dog or a Ring
Ding. Fulfilling richness vs. empty calories. Both are satisfying
chocolate desserts but which one will you remember as being something
special?

Fight for your right to AIFF files
The downside to uncompressed files is that you won¹t be able to fit
10,000 songs on your 40 GB iPod. Instead, you'll have to settle for a
measly 1,000 to 1,200 songs.

Apple also doesn¹t make it easy to go uncompressed. If you buy music
from the iTunes store it comes to you in that 128Kbps AAC file. That
means you need to rip your own music from CDs.


Better yet, tell Apple that you¹d like the option of hearing the iTunes
music you're paying for in the best possible format. What you're
getting now is a highly-compressed file with sound quality 25 to 50
percent as good as an uncompressed one. Unfortunately, you¹re not
paying 25 to 50 percent of what uncompressed music sells for in CD form.

Additionally, while the convenience of buying individual songs on iTunes
is nice, you still don't really "own" those files. Unlike owning a CD,
you¹re actually renting the rights to play AACs on a limited number of
devices.

We should demand the right to spend our money on the best-sounding music
files possible. Being able to download AIFF files would offer more bang
for the buck. Literally.

Future music systems
Compressed music files do have their place, it's just not on a 40 GB
device.

I¹ve been testing a 128MB MP3 storage device from M-Systems, the people
who invented those keychain USB storage drives. For $80 you get a
small, cute and very portable music player, plus a built-in FM radio and
voice recorder. With these kinds of devices, and there are many on the
market, using 128Kbps compressed files makes all the sense in the world.
You can get 20 to 25 songs or two albums into the memory bank.

All of this will begin to make a bigger difference when distributed
music systems become popular. I¹ve just heard a preview of a
marvelous-sounding system, available later this year, that will allow
you to control and play the music files on your hard drive in any and
every room of your house. I think it could be the home audio wave of
the future.

Such a hard drive doesn't need to be attached to a computer, either. It
could just be one of those new standalone, network storage centers
attached to your home Ethernet network. I¹ll be testing one with 250 GB
of storage. At Apple¹s standard compression rate, that¹s room for more
than 60,000 songs. In WAV/AIFF format that¹s 7,000 non-compressed songs
or something like 700 CDs. I don¹t think I own 700 CDs.

Finally, whatever portable music device you have or intend to buy please
discard the earplugs they give you and buy something that allows music
to sound like music. Device manufacturers give headphones to you for
free because that¹s what they¹re worth. Whether you spend $40 or $400
for your device, it¹s worth it to listen to what a pair of Koss,
Sennheiser or Shure (try a pair of E3c's) headphones can add to your
listening enjoyment.
© 2004 MSNBC Interactive